Is it a problem?

Hi there, this is my first time growing at home and after my first flush I soaked the cake and then I started seeing a few aborts and also some kind of "retarded" mushrooms. Also today i saw the color change on stems of two biggest fruits. One more thing, why caps have such a greyish hue?

In my first flush i had fuzzy feet problem even though i faned the bag multiple times a day, but I believe that high humidity was the problem.

Can someone help me in this what the problem is abd shoud i toss the cake completely?

Hello! Some aborts (stalled shrooms, usually with black caps) on the cake after soaking, cold shocking and just during the flush is completely normal. More pins popping up on your cake, and that's good!

Regarding your concerns about greyish powdery caps, discoloration on the stems (I mean brown necrotic lession on the biggest shrooms — the 1st and 3rd photos) and bended mushroom with "hair lip" defect (the 1st photo, small shroom in red circle) — these are all symptoms of Dry Bubble disease (Verticillium contamination). Here is a draft of my write up on this topic, but you can already check the info and photo examples: https://shroomok.com/gallery/dry-bubble-verticillium

However, don't rush to toss the cake, as I'm not 100% sure about your case at the moment! Let's do the following: let the mushrooms grow for now and share photos in 2-3 days. I'll check them again

Ok great. Really appreciate your help. Will post in 3 days and se what is going on.

Alright. Here is an update.

Now it looks very apart abd there are a few younger fruits which seems to get infected day by day, as soon as they get infected the growth stops and starts decaying.

I've read about these contams you mentioned and these don't look like a ferfect example of any of contaminations. Only the one curved having the cap turned out.

Looking forward to learn something new out of this experience.

Thanks

Your new shrooms look pretty good (blue circles in the photo). But the prev. shrooms still have greyish powdery velvety cover (red circles). I don't see any dry necrotic damages on the stems and caps though, which is a good sign!

Could you pls make a Qtip test? (for mushroom caps in the red circles)

Verticillium spores are sticky. So take a clean cotton swab and swipe the caps. Do you see grey powder on it? If no — it's fine. If yes — probably contamination spores on caps.

P.S. I've already finished Dry Bubble disease (Verticillium) write up ;)

https://shroomok.com/gallery/dry-bubble-verticillium

Thanks a lot on everything you say, it helps a lot.

I did a Qtip test and it surprised me. As it is visible on photos after rubbing cotton at caps the cap became clean like normal cap, but on the cotton swab the color is green-bluish and only after harder rubbing it appears, I don't see any grey color on it.

Here are the pics of it.

Maybe to add a few more things. After soking the cake after first flush, the cake had the odor like it started fermenting but it disappeared two days later. The fruits in question emerged day or two after soking the cake. The odor now is very similar to damp stalled air, none of the bad bad odor like sour and i fan 3 to 5 times a day. Also i see a few fruits that is only a cap without a stem that are emerging on the cake circled in blue.

Thanks for all your help and article

Green-bluish color, especially after hard rubbing is bruising. So, it's fine! But be gentle with your shrooms :) More info here: https://shroomok.com/en/wiki/Mycelium_Bruises_or_Mold_Contamination Unfortunately, I can't clearly see the color tint and texture on the swab. Therefore, I rely on your sensations and detailed descriptions.

Regarding fermenting smell after soaking it is a mild bacterial/yeast contamination. How long did you soak the cake? You can't fix it since it's in your substrate inside. It's not dangerous, just dry your mushrooms properly after harvesting and avoid rotted fruits.

If I gently rub the swab against the mushroom there were no traces of anything on the swab on cap there were visible clean traces. Why I tried harder to rub it was simply because I didn't see any traces on the swab and did only on affeced fruits. Now I looked closer and it looks like thin fluffy layer very similar to mycelium i have seen on some photos of fuzzy feet and touching it, it disapears and the surface looks clean like on photos.

I soaked the cake for 10 hours and still I am not sure if it was fermentation because the smeel was exactley the same as of fresh truffles I bought once. This odor disappeared two days later. Now it has been 12 days since soaking up the cake.

One more thing I can think of is that after soaking up the cake I used a piece of cardboard to fan the bag because I experienced fuzzy feet in the last flush which I stopped before those "healthy" looking mushrooms appeared. Now I only open the bag for a few minutes and close it.

This is my first grow ever and still learning.

I am thinking of taking out all these suspicious fruits and see what is going to happene with the rest. What are your thoughts?

It's a good sign if the smell has disappeared. Don't soak mushroom cake for too long. 1-4 hrs is more than enough — depending on how dehydrated the cake. Sometimes just hard misting is enough.

Mycelium layer on caps is also fine. Now we know the answer ;)

Sure you can pick that "questionable" mushrooms and see what happens next. Try to open your bag more often — 3-5 times/day for about 5 mins.

Waiting for updates from you :)

There are many different oppinions on how long to soak the cake, usually I see from 8 to 24 hours. Currently the cake shrank, aproximately 5%. So next time if get to it, will do shorter.

After taking out those questionable fruits I see that they were brised without me touching them, also I see that the biggest one currently is getting bruised beneath the cap. I have read on your gides that bruising mihgt happen if it is fanned harder.

Could it be possible that mutation happened as I found small bubble-like fruits, only cap without a stem?

Will update you in a week or so when I see how it will turn out.

Thanks for your help 🙏

Along with normal mushrooms, mutated and aborted mushrooms can appear on the cake. So yes, it's possible!

Here is an update.

Sadly it didnt go well. As soon as they stop growing they turn cloudy and start bruising. The one on the side looked the best but shape wasn't like it is supposed to be and it stopped growing as well. Something is broken in a cake so that fruits die prematurely.

How did your first flush go? Did the mushrooms look good? This may be also the result of slight bacterial contamination and their more active growth after soaking in water or due to any stress.

Anyway, better to start over again. And better to do it by your own, at least partially. You can buy spore syringe or liquid culture, ready-made sterilized grain, pasteurized bulk substrate. Inoculate the grain and later make a proper mix for mushroom cake by your own. In this way you'll have more control on the process and quality.

The genetics in growkits is usually questionable. And using vermiculite as a top layer is always sucks, but growkits keep using it!

Well the first flush was okay, nothing special and mushrooms looked good, had only one that had 1cm stem and same size the cap, other were good. Only problem was fuzzy feet towards the end of flush.

The strange thing is that there was no any bad odors at all. Only thing was when mushrooms became greyish it smelled like stalled air. When I took out first few geay shrooms out, then smell was fresh like when I bought it.

I thought of doing it myself but it seems to me too much hustle and have no experience. Now I found a little different growkit with decent reviews that doesn't have vermicullite. It is in a bag with rubberband and says just to leave it in a well ventilated area and there is no need to fan it as it has its own filter patch for FAE. Will see how it will go.

Current growkit I soaked again for an hour and put hydrogen peroxide in a water for one hour, leveled the surface and will see if anything will come out of it. Probably it won't but I have nothing to lose.

Would it be safe to consume those mushrooms I got last?

It would be great to see a photo of your very first flush (if you have one).

Your grow kit used multi spore genetics, so it's likely that all mushrooms look different within a single flush and between flushes (shape, color, height etc.) Also environmental conditions influence greatly (temperature fluctuations, cold/heat shock, high CO2 etc.)

After your second attempt with a growkit/growbag, you'll be more confident and may want to grow them on your own ;) Regarding the current one, you're right—nothing to lose at all!

Yes, just dry your shrooms thoroughly!

Well the thing is super interesting to grow no doubt about it, but there is no reason to grow magic shrooms. Also, this was the first time usinge them at all and I am not sure if I like it. Maybe will grow other mushrooms sometime.

When it comes to usign mushrooms, every time I take it, I have a jittery resltess sensations in my body, very similar to high doses of coffee or nicotine. I do not enjoy experiencing such things, I would rather enjoy in peace and have nice sensations in my body. The highest dose was 2g and others were 1g and 1,4g.

Here are a few pics of my first flush. Photos are a week apart because not all mushrooms grew at the same time.

Why limit yourself to growing active mushrooms, especially if you don't really need them!? Try cultivating edibles and other medicinal mushrooms. At least you can enjoy eating them without side effects and have fun growing them — Lion's Mane, Shiitake, various types of Oysters and Reishi mushrooms, Enoki, Pioppino, and much more! ;)

For reference and as an example: Shiitake guide and Day-to-day Reishi growing diary

The first flush was almost the same amount, but yes, the mushrooms were way better.

Well, I always was wonderng on producing food supplements. Most of those I believe do contaain lot of mushrooms. My dad had grown oyster mushrooms in a basement I believe and it was quite nice crop. One more thing thr mushroom murket is growkng from year to year.

After the upcoming griwkit will start exoerimenting more in areas what and how. Your websites like Bible for growing mushrooms along with Paul Stamets

@Shroomok - what made you so passionate about mushrooms?

You can grow, cook, dry, ferment, make tincture, tea and eat your own ‘supplements’ — mushrooms, herbs, seeds, roots…

So, your dad gave you a context — a starting point :) Such real-life examples have a big influence on our direction, often become a part of our own experience… I’d say growing oyster mushrooms in the basement could’ve had a much greater impact than Stamets and other famous guys (huge respect to them).

Mushrooms have always been in my life. In early ages it was just fun, since my grandpa was experienced mushroom forager. And my dad has been growing edibles for decades.

But! My first actual experience of mushroom growing was a pure coincidence. Friend of mine got a few spore prints, failed to grow anything except of green mold, and eventually gave one to me. That’s it. Never thought it become such an important part of my life.

I love watching the living process — how something appears, grows, changes. In case of mushrooms, fungi don’t require many months to see results (fermentation bacteria or cucumbers are also cool!)

I decided to share my whole journey — and Shroomok project appeared!

Tectonic shift was after launching Discord community. I met and still meet amazing people with different backgrounds. I collecting tons of information: from troubles people face along the way to different mushroom strains photos and cool DIY setups. A few months ago I launched this forum and I’m happy to see some activity here.

I think… people make me wonder!

P.S: Thank you for placing me with Stamets in one line, but I’m just another hobbyist on the internet :-)

I share practical stuff in hope of lowering the entry threshold for people who are very far from mushroom cultivation or even gardening.

I really appreciate your effort that takes to make something like Shroomok. It's a sign of real dedication to cover almost the whole process of growing mushrooms which I found useful. Before buying first growkit I knew nothing about growing mushrooms and then challenges appeared so I had to find answers and ended up at your website.

Basically I have a lot of experience of growing food as I grew up in a village. When it comes to mushrooms I only had been going with my dad to forge wild mushrooms and once he tried to grow oysters. I bought this growkit simply because I wanted to try psychedelics and it seemed like the best option. Now seeing how it grows and develops it intrigues me a lot and would like to try other mushrooms as well. I enjoy eating mushrooms much more than meat so it will be a real fun.

Definitely, it will help me to correct my motives and do something out of a hobby, not just chasing money in my life it is rats race and this will give me pleasure and really enjoy life. It is sad fact that I chased only money and instant pleasure. Mushrooms actually don't take that long to grow so I can delay my gratification and still enjoy it.

Maybe I am too old to have experience about discord, maybe this will give me a kick to join your channel and share my experience and learn more about this wonderful creaturs.

I tossed my first growkit as it cought some bad smell and it didnt feel right and got myself one like full automatic growkit. Now it looks very nice in the bag and will see in few weeks how it will turn out.

There are many differences between plants and fungi, but growing food (I assume you meant plants) and also cooking skills are very helpful in mushroom growing.

Personally, I don’t like grow kits. They are far from ideal and sometimes it’s hard to help first time growers, because in some cases we need to go beyond the growkit conditions in order to save the cake or make it fruit. I don’t blame growkits since it is an easy, fast, cost effective solution. You don’t need to buy all at once and follow all the routine steps.

If you like growing after trying growkit — keep going, improve your knowledge and skills. If not — no worries, the demo version is over, maybe you'll come back to it later… or not :-)

Mushroom cultivation is full of fun and may become a peaceful restorative moment of the day. You allow yourself some time to forget about everything and enjoy watching them grow. You can quit or postpone this process anytime. Start over again whenever you want.

If you’d like to join discord you’re always welcome. There are mostly mature people in our community. Or just keep being an active member of this ‘prenatal’ community on the site :-)

I’ve launched this forum because I always wanted an old-school message board like the early 2000s — when internet consisted of numerous authentic islands (forums), each with its unique climate and population. Now I’m filled with warm flashbacks — call me an old fart :D

Nowadays, people rarely visit anything beyond the reddit-instagram-fb-tiktok bubble. They’re sucked into the feeds where content, often generated, is extremely short-lived. Google, as the entry point of the entire internet, tries to keep users within its ecosystem (search <-> youtube, search <-> generated AI answers) or drives them to other platforms — for example, to affiliated Reddit. What can I say? Tough times for independent small-to-medium-sized projects :-) But I still believe that forums will make a huge comeback! Here, communication is more in-depth (with you, for sure!) and long-reads are more welcome.

I’ve been using this forum as a diary for 6 months for my Day-to-day Reishi growing. Simply to track my progress and share it to others. So anybody can use forum and post something like this, help others who asking for help, run experiments, share tips&tricks, recipes, fails (we need them as well!) or whatever you want.

So, when you’re ready — just start another thread and use it as a journal for your growkit, post your observations, growing progress, maybe insights or just thoughts. I like your writing style!